this
neighbourhood. I had a careful and almost certain plan of shooting them.
Quite alone, with the exception of two faithful gun-bearers, I used to
wait at the edge of the jungle at their feeding time, and watch their
exit from the forest. The most cautious stalking then generally enabled
me to get a fatal shot before my presence was discovered. This is the
proper way to succeed with rogue elephants, although of course it is
attended with considerable danger. I was once very nearly caught near
this spot, where the elephants are always particularly savage. The
lake was then much diminished in size by dry weather, and the water had
retired for about a hundred yards from the edge of the forest, leaving
a deep bed of mud covered with slime and decayed vegetable matter.
This slime had hardened in the sun and formed a cake over the soft mud
beneath. Upon this treacherous surface a man could walk with great
care. Should the thin covering break through, he would be immediately
waist-deep in the soft mud. To plod through this was the elephant's
delight. Smearing a thick coat of the black mud over their whole bodies,
they formed a defensive armour against the attacks of mosquitoes, which
are the greatest torments that an elephant has to contend with.

I was watching the edge of the forest one afternoon at about four
o'clock, when I noticed the massive form of one of these tank rogues
stalk majestically from the jungle and proceed through the deep mud
towards the lake. I had the wind, and I commenced stalking him.

Advancing with my two gun-bearers in single file, I crept carefully from
tree to tree along the edge of the forest for about a quarter of a mile,
until I arrived at the very spot at which he had made his exit from the
jungle.

I was now within eighty yards of him as he stood with his head towards
the lake and his hind-quarters exactly facing me. His deep tracks in the
mud were about five feet apart, so great was his stride and length of
limb, and, although the soft bog was at least three and a half feet
deep, his belly was full two feet above the surface. He was a fine
fellow, and, with intense caution, I advanced towards him over the
trembling surface of baked slime. His tracks had nearly filled with
water, and looked like little wells. The bog waved as I walked carefully
over it, and I stopped once or twice, hesitating whether I should
continue; I feared the crusty surface would not support me, as the
nearer I ap